A 45-year-old pastor-in-charge of Watered
Ground Ministry, Delight Arinze Okorie, who
claimed to have been in pastoral ministry for 10
years and was on the run for sometime now,
have been finally arrested and is cooling his
heels in the custody of the Imo State Police Com
mand, Owerri.
“I have been in pastoral ministry for over 10
years. When some of my members or the friends
they bring, come to tell me about their problems,
I always give them fake prophecies. If I discover
that they have money, I use the opportunity to
rob them by setting them up with the fake
prophecies,” he told a Sunday Sun reporter in
Owerri.
In an interview with the Imo State Commissioner
of Police, Taiwo Lakanu, said the suspect
deployed strategies in deceiving, robbing and
attempting to murder one member of the church,
35-year-old Mrs. Chioma Oleka at Atta in
Ihennasa, Njaba Local Government Area, Imo
State, by falsely claiming that she was
possessed with a mermaid (marine) spirit.
The Police boss further revealed that on May 25,
2016, Okorie lured Oleka to Nwangele river,
where she was to ostensibly undergo special
deliverance prayer. The lady drove her Lexus
SUV with a Rivers State registration number,
KPR 243HF to keep the appointment for prayers
and deliverance.
Okorie the pastor suspect revealed what followed
thereafter:
“As we were praying on the bridge, I went to the
back of the vehicle and picked up a machete. I
gave her several cuts all over her body with the
intention to kill her. Then I pushed her from the
top of the bridge into the river for her to drown.
Some members of my gang, who pretend to be
members of my church, who went with me then
escaped with the SUV, when we sighted a police
patrol team.”
Unfortunately for Okorie and the gang, Oleka
miraculously survived the vicious attack and fall
into the river as she did not drown. Rather she
pretended to have died.
Recalling her fortuitous survival of the
horrendous experience she passed through,
Oleka said:
“Before this thing happened I had been attending
Watered Ground Ministry, the church headed by
Pastor Okorie. He always prophesied in the
church and one day he said that I had a mer
maid (marine or mammywater) spirit. He said I
had to go for special deliverance prayer not
knowing that he wanted to rob and murder me.
During the prayer session, he suddenly pushed
me from the top of the bridge into the river. He
gave me machete cuts thinking that I would die.
But a police patrol team rescued me, took me to
the hospital. I think I have learnt my lesson, that
there are many false pastors all over the place;
we need God’s intervention.”
After their successful escape from the crime
scene, Okorie and his gang members continued
their operations for several months thinking that
the chapter had been closed on what they did to
Oleka.
However, providence was patiently waiting to
expose them. That day arrived when Oleka began
to recover from the attack while still in the
hospital. When she was strong enough to talk
with police detectives investigating the case, she
recounted what happened and gave the police
the registration number of the car.
For a while, the police kept Okorie under
surveillance and then moved in to arrest him.
During interrogation, he sang like a canary and
revealed his alleged past escapades in crime,
robbery, kidnapping and murder.
With information obtained from Okorie and the
other members of his gang, the police recovered
the Lexus SUV as well as the arms and
ammunition of the gang.
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